Russian president rules out restricting economic activity across country

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with regional officials via tele link in his residence outside Moscow on March 30, 2020, amid concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. (AFP photo)

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has ruled out restricting economic activity across the country because of the coronavirus epidemic, saying it would be “impractical.”

“It is clear that limiting economic activity, closing businesses and institutions, spreading the measures evenly across the whole country is not necessary,” Putin said Friday, citing the fact that each region in Russia was facing different challenges.

Russia has so far recorded 4,149 coronavirus cases and 34 deaths from the virus.

Putin on Thursday extended until April 30 a paid non-working period across the country as part of efforts aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus.

Russia has imposed a partial lockdown on many regions, including Moscow.

‘Worst case scenario yet to come’

Meanwhile, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Friday that the peak of the coronavirus epidemic was yet to come, adding that the situation in the country could yet develop into a worst-case scenario.

“It is clear that the peak of infections has not yet passed, and we can’t rule out the situation developing into the most difficult scenario,” he said.

A Russian law enforcement officer with a dog and Cossacks walk past flowering trees while patrolling a district, after local authorities tightened up measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on April 3, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)

Many governments have ordered restaurants, shops, and many other businesses closed as part of lockdown measures aimed at curbing their epidemics.

The disease has so far infected more than one million people and killed over 53,000 across the world, according to data compiled by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

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